Among the Vines
by Kay Willow
Summary: Yozak would follow the other boy to the ends of the earth, but instead they're here, stuck in a struggling field of grapes...


**.among the vines.**

The land wasn't rich and the hunting could have been better, but the people who lived in the nameless village were in no position to demand luxury. The simple fact of the matter was that it was better than where they had come from: Greater Shimaron had intended for them to work themselves to death attempting to forge a life out of barren soil in a harsh climate. Here, in Shin Makoku, the land wasn't rich, but it was alive, ready to be coaxed into blooming health.

"It's kind of funny that we started with grapes," Yozak said, wrapping the thin blanket tighter around his shoulders. The predawn air made the misty valley cool, not entirely comfortable for the boy in his threadbare clothes, but the field of vines stretched below him loved it. He loved it too, if it would make the grapes grow. "They always talk about fine wines in the noble houses, and the kinds of banquets where you serve grapes... I didn't really realize that ordinary people grow them just like ordinary people grow everything else."

The neat rows of tentative vines looked lovely in the light. It was too early for the sun to be strong: they were painted a delicate pastel yellow, like the fluff of young chicks.

"My mother says that grapes grow best in soil with few nutrients," said the boy. "So they don't ripen too soon or too rich. They should bring in a lot of money for the village if they turn out well."

Yozak was no fool. He knew that it would be years before they could cultivate a fussy crop well enough to bring in the kind of profit they needed to truly repair this wretched place. But now they had a chance... a future to strive for.

Conrad got to his feet, brushing off his doeskin leggings, and Yozak scrambled to follow suit -- it felt wrong to be sitting when the brunet was standing. Even knowing that he was only a half-breed like Yozak, it felt like he had been welcomed as the friend of a great lord: the boy was confident and gentle, a figure out of some storybook, and Yozak couldn't bear being seen as disrespectful in the face of that kindness.

He kept waiting for Conrad to say something like, 'Do a cartwheel,' or, 'I expect you to swear fealty to me.' Yozak would do it in a heartbeat.

Instead, the younger boy said, "I heard that you had other crops growing -- potatoes and carrots, right? The grapes aren't the only things the village has been raising, I expect."

"Oh-- of course." Yozak was flustered. He was so proud of the grapes... "In the other fields, north of the little valley--"

"I see." Conrad smiled at him, as if sharing a joke. "That's good news. They'll keep you well-fed while you work on the prize, right?" He took a few light steps towarsd the vines and Yozak, clutching the blanket about his shoulders, followed.

They'd been out here for an hour already, talking about the village, and its relationships with the neighboring towns, and the newcomers who had slowly begun to appear, barefoot and penniless but always welcomed and settled with the money Dan Hiri had set aside for just such arrivals. It had still been the dark of night when the boy shook him awake.

Normally Yozak would have resented being rousted from bed at an even earlier hour than he already had to get up in order to help the villagers at their labor. But Conrad was different. He stumbled wearily along in his wake, trying to think of something interesting to say before the dawn came and the boy vanished again.

_Stay this time,_ he thought at Conrad's back.

"I can't believe how much things have changed in the year since we brought you here," said the brunet, gliding into the neat rows. He reached out with careful fingers to touch the hanging grapes, dark but frosted pastel in the early morning light. "You've done more than I thought possible in making this place... real."

Yozak closed his eyes, thinking of the long journey to the nameless village, a parade of shambling unwanted half-breeds and the broken shells of those who had loved too much. "There isn't a single man or woman here who wouldn't do anything to justify your faith in us. If Dan Hiri was even a little disappointed..."

It would be like watching the last person who had believed in them wither before their eyes. Yozak knew he spoke for most of the village when he said that such a thing would be _unspeakable_.

Conrad, with his sober adult gaze, was watching Yozak and smiling. "I wish I didn't have to go," he said, turning back to the grapes.

_Stay!_

"You don't... have to, do you?" Yozak felt himself flush and soldiered on, "Everyone in the village would be really honored if you and Dan Hiri-sama would stay with us. Even just for a while, a few days..."

They hadn't even spent a single day. At some point in the crystal dark of night long after Yozak had dropped into exhausted sleep, they had descended upon the town, and scant hours later they would be whisked away again. Dan Hiri had no doubt spent the dark hours in quiet conversation with the handful of leaders who had managed to emerge from Greater Shimaron with spirit intact.

He would leave them with a purse of coins and take the boy away with him.

Conrad glanced around to each side warily, leaning to peer around Yozak, and then carefully plucked a grape and darted it to his lips. He grimaced at the sour burst of flavor, and then laughed, his thin voice breaking through the misty morning. There was something so utterly genuine about that smile that Yozak found his own lips turning up until his cheeks ached from it.

Once he'd told himself that he would follow Dan Hiri to the ends of the earth, and he still believed that. And he'd told himself that he would follow Conrad to the ends of the earth -- and although Dan Hiri was a far stronger and greater man than he could ever dream of being, Conrad was only his age, with limitations. Within reach.

_Stay,_ he thought. _Don't go where I can't follow you._

"I'll come back when I can," said Conrad quietly. "And we can drink this wine together."

The two boys play catch-me-if-you-can to keep warm until Dan Hiri rides over the hill, Conrad's mount guided behind by the reins. Yozak watches them leave, shivering in the cold wind, but his eyes are fixed straight ahead, and he doesn't notice.


End file.
